This week I am going to be installing a cheap thermoeletric cooling system into my DWC system and I thought I'd write up a DYI as I construct it. Parts have been ordered and I am waiting on delivery.
The idea isn't mine by any means but I'd like to share this because it's easy to do (i think) and if it works I should have a cooling system that can automatically turn on and off based on my desired water temperature requirements.
First off, for those that don't know or want a refresher a thermoeletric cooler is a plate that uses eletricity to either heat or cool. Depending on how you setup the polarity you can either heat or cool but in my case because my light already heats the water I shall be cooling.
The power draw of the plate dictates how much it will heat or cool. For example anything over 200 watt would easily freeze all the water in a 16g system. We don't need a big power drawing device.
How effective is it you ask?
Well, that all depends. It should in theory depend on a few factors such as water capacity, curculation rates and the power draw the device requires. A higher drawing cooling plate can always be purchased and will be more effective. But most like me only need to drop the temps by a little bit we don't need ice! Let me explain...
I don't have a large DWC system it's roughly 13g and I think I might get away with a thermoelectric cooler that is around 40w. It should easily allow me to reduce the water temps to my desired levels. At the moment I have really really hot water where it sits around 78F. I want 68F for now. I'm actually suprised so far I haven't had any death within the system and it's not on its first round.
Hows it work in DWC?
An independant loop within the reservoir cycles water and in and out of a chilled water block. The chilling can be close to negative if you want but we don't want that.
The standard aluminium water block has a thermoelectric plate attached to the top of it and a simply CPU heatsink sits on top of that. Essentially three layers, water block, cooler, heatsink.
The unit is then attached to the lid of the reservoir.
A pump is placed into the reservoir and a tube is connected to it and the other end to one end of the water block.
Another tube is placed on the other water block connector and left to dangle in the reservoir. It's better to have as little possible so that if it's possible you will create a fountain effect with the water that exits the waterblock.
A electric plug that provides power to the peltier needs to have a thermo monitor. Set it to 68 and when the temps reach the desired temps the unit is shut off automatically waiting to cool the water back down when it gets hot.
How cheap is the solution?
39w 3.9A Thermoelectric/Peltier - $50
Aluminum water block - $15
Submersible pump - $15
Laptop charger that matches both the AMP and WATT requirements of the Thermoelectric device.
In my case $20
Tubes $10
power plug in theromostat $50
zipties $3
Total $ 163
Can't wait for everything to arrive and start building ETA 2 days... Pics soon.
The idea isn't mine by any means but I'd like to share this because it's easy to do (i think) and if it works I should have a cooling system that can automatically turn on and off based on my desired water temperature requirements.
First off, for those that don't know or want a refresher a thermoeletric cooler is a plate that uses eletricity to either heat or cool. Depending on how you setup the polarity you can either heat or cool but in my case because my light already heats the water I shall be cooling.
The power draw of the plate dictates how much it will heat or cool. For example anything over 200 watt would easily freeze all the water in a 16g system. We don't need a big power drawing device.
How effective is it you ask?
Well, that all depends. It should in theory depend on a few factors such as water capacity, curculation rates and the power draw the device requires. A higher drawing cooling plate can always be purchased and will be more effective. But most like me only need to drop the temps by a little bit we don't need ice! Let me explain...
I don't have a large DWC system it's roughly 13g and I think I might get away with a thermoelectric cooler that is around 40w. It should easily allow me to reduce the water temps to my desired levels. At the moment I have really really hot water where it sits around 78F. I want 68F for now. I'm actually suprised so far I haven't had any death within the system and it's not on its first round.
Hows it work in DWC?
An independant loop within the reservoir cycles water and in and out of a chilled water block. The chilling can be close to negative if you want but we don't want that.
The standard aluminium water block has a thermoelectric plate attached to the top of it and a simply CPU heatsink sits on top of that. Essentially three layers, water block, cooler, heatsink.
The unit is then attached to the lid of the reservoir.
A pump is placed into the reservoir and a tube is connected to it and the other end to one end of the water block.
Another tube is placed on the other water block connector and left to dangle in the reservoir. It's better to have as little possible so that if it's possible you will create a fountain effect with the water that exits the waterblock.
A electric plug that provides power to the peltier needs to have a thermo monitor. Set it to 68 and when the temps reach the desired temps the unit is shut off automatically waiting to cool the water back down when it gets hot.
How cheap is the solution?
39w 3.9A Thermoelectric/Peltier - $50
Aluminum water block - $15
Submersible pump - $15
Laptop charger that matches both the AMP and WATT requirements of the Thermoelectric device.
In my case $20
Tubes $10
power plug in theromostat $50
zipties $3
Total $ 163
Can't wait for everything to arrive and start building ETA 2 days... Pics soon.
